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ACKXOWLEDGEMEXT. 

This booklet is offered to the public in 
response to many requests. It may be ed- 
ucational to those who never heard of Sul- 
grave or associated it with the Washing- 
tons. The illustration of Sulgrave Manor 
House is from one of several photographs 
recently taken in Sulgrave England. 

There is much of interest connected with 
this historic place, which so brief an ac- 
count could not contain. The writer 
wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness 
with thanks to the best authorities for 
what it contains of interest to the reader. 




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NOV 23 191^ ©ciA445764 



SULGRAVE, THE ENGLISH HOME OF 
THE WASHINGTONS. 



This is only a brief reference to a very 
interesting and historical place of which so 
much has been written. The name of George 
Washington and Mount Vernon are naturally 
associated in the minds of Americans. Of the 
thousands who visit Mount Vernon every year, 
how many associate Sulgrave with the Wash- 
ingtons? There are many Americans who 
throng Stafford every year, perhaps only a 
small number are aware that the ancestral 
home of the Washingtons is only a few miles 
away. Still smaller the number who make the 
pilgrimage to Sulgrave or to Brington, ten 
miles further. Traditions of these places are 
closely connected with the ancestors of the 
Father of this Country. His stately home on 
the Potomac is not neglected by his country 
man, but every American should be interested 
in the English forefathers of the man who 
more than any other, freed them from the "rule 
of kings." 

That the Washington family is of ancient 
English stock, the genealogy of which has been 
traced up to the centurj^ immediately succeed 
ing the Conquest. At that time it was in the 
possession of landed estates and manorial 



privileges in the Country of Durham, enjoyed 
only by those or their descendants, who had 
come over from Normandy with the Conqueror, 
or fought under his standard. When William 
the Conqueror laid waste the whole country 
north of the Humber, in punishment of the in- 
surrection of the Northumbrains, he appointed 
the estate among his followers, and advanced 
Normans and other foreigners to the principal 
ecclesiastical dignities. One of the most 
wealthy and important sees was that of Dur- 
ham. Historians record that, among the 
Knights who held estates in the palatinate on 
these warlike conditions was William de Hert- 
burn, the progenitor of Washington. 

In the ancient church records of Womleig:h- 
ton are records of the marriage of Robert 
Washington in 1565 and birth of his son George 
Washington in 1608^antedating his famous 
namesake in America by more than a century. 
The story of Sulgrave's connection with the 
Washington is not common. In the reign of 
Henry the eighth, Lawrence AVashington was 
mayor of Northampton. Sulgrave was among 
the confiscated church lands that the king was 
offering at bargain prices, and Washington 
purchased it for three hundred pounds. His 
grandson, another Lawrence Washington, sold 
the estate about 1606 and moved to Little 
Brington ten miles to the northwest of Sul- 
grave. The Lawrence Washington who is 
buried in Great Brin,2'ton Church was the 2:reat- 



great-grandfather of the first American. Tlie 
frequent reocurrence of tlie name of Lawrence 
in the Washington line is most confusing. 
Some genealogists believe that there was a 
marriage at an early date between the Law^- 
rences and the ancestors of General Washing- 
ton. 

The chief Washington memorials here are 
the brasses — the inscriptions and the coat-of- 
arms, over the grave of Law^rence Washing- 
ton of Sulgrave and Brington, and these are 
sunk deep in the stone slab and are guarded by 
lock and key. 

Keen interest among historians and gen- 
ealogists has for some years centred around 
Sulgrave, a picturesque hamlet in Northamp- 
tonshire, which claimed to be the ancestral 
home of the Washingtons, w^ho lived here more 
than three centuries ago. 

Sulgrave Manor is noW' little more than a 
farm house and sadly in need of repair. There 
are indications that it was a building of size 
and importance in its day. 

The present living room of the house is a 
large square room with dark oak beams in the 
ceiling and a generous fire place, typical in this 
period. A dark oak stairw^ay leads to the sec- 
ond floor, near to w^hich is a large room simply 
furnished as a bed room. It was in this room 
that Law^rence Washington, son of Robert, and 
great-great-great grandfather of George Wash- 



ington was born. At the head of the stairway 
is a spacious closet of special interest, as the 
place where Queen Elizabeth hid while engaged 
in a game of hide-and-seek during: a visit to the 
manor-house when Robert Washington was liv- 
ing there. 

At a meeting held at the Mansion House, 
called by the Lord Mayor of London, Jan. 23rd, 
1914, when the keys of Sulgrave Manor-house 
were turned over to the Duke of Teck, Honor- 
ary Chairman of the British Committee, to ar- 
range for the Celebration of the Hundred 
Years of Peace between England and the 
United States, by buying the English home of 
the family of George Washington. 

The Patriotic Societies in America such as 
the Colonial Dames of America, and the Nat- 
ional Society of Colonial Dames of America in 
conjunction with the British and American 
Committees are interesting* themselves in the 
furnishing of Sulgrave Manor-house and will 
doubtless help to restore the interior of the old 
mansion to its former condition. In this patri- 
otic work all Americans will connect with the 
sr.me interest, Sulgrave and Mount Vernon. 



Copyright as a whole 1916 Fred J. Woodward 



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